CITY LEGENDS

Summer palace of Peter the First

Building of Petersburg has begun under Peter and Paul Fortress cover a southern coast of the Birch (then - City, and nowadays - Petrogradsky) island.

Here round the Peter I first palace - a wooden small house - the port has been arranged, a market space with drawing rooms and a court yard, warehouses and barns was created, the customs was constructed and the wooden church for the sake of the Sacred Trinity was erected.

Here Peter's confidants, eminent people, clergy lodged, and barracks for "worky people" were under construction.

But since autumn of 1704 there was a severe need of settling in the opposite, left coast of Neva, in the island named Admiralty.

The shipyard there was under construction, and working hands were very much necessary. The first large villages were settled down near to a future shipyard, on the bank of small river Mi (Sink) in the area of future the Big and Small Morsky (Sea) streets.

Unwillingly, under fear of "stomach deprivations", officials and the officers occupied on a vessel construction moved here.

It was necessary to apply forced measures to them, to publish decrees, to create lists of names, to give for development some sites of the boggy earths, to go on other small and big shifts, including on demonstration of personal, imperial interest in that earths development.

Peter decides to present to his wife Ekaterina a palace and order to build it on opposite coast of Neva in Summer garden territory.

The summer palace was under construction between 1710 to 1714 on the bank of Fontanka, on a place of a wooden small Summer House of eter standing here since 1703.

Two-storeyed the palace building, with high roof, on "Dutch manner", was projected by Domeniko Trezini.

In first half of XVIII-th century prior to a southern facade of the palace a harbour has been arranged, or as then spoke, "gavanets" for entering of ships from Fontanka.

Was the legend true, or not, but up to the time of the termination of building of the Summer palace it was mass settling of the left coast of Neva and gradual transferring of the political, economic and public centre of Petersburg with the City island to the Admiralty one.

Source: N.A. Sindalovsky "Legends of St. Petersburg"